Planting for Security

It’s a sad fact of life that home break-ins are becoming more common these days. I recently dug down into past columns for some advice to give my sister, whose neighborhood is having its share of unnerving events.

While you can’t count on your landscaping to keep you safe from break-ins, at least a little common sense will help you to avoid making it easier on the invaders.

To recap my earlier blog post:

• Pretend you’re a burglar cruising past your house, sizing it up for a possible break-in. How inviting does your landscaping look for an unobserved entry and quick getaway?

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• First drive by, then walk past the house, then around the sides. Are entryways clear? Or are they lined with shrubbery, trees and vines that make great hiding places? Invaders may break in by day and stash stolen items in shrubs to be picked up after dark.

• Check first-floor windows. Will shrubs, trees or vines hide a burglar from the street or neighbors — as he gains access to the house and as he moves around inside?

•One “cure” is to top shrubs so that they do not block views. With larger shrubs, which do not lend themselves to being topped, underpruning might work. To underprune, trim away lower branches, leaving three to five main stalks. Strip these stalks of leaves and small branches.

This encourages more branching on the top growth, creating a small, multitrunked tree, which allows a clear view through the lower section. Since this also admits light to the lower areas, this section can be planted with a groundcover, or lower growing plants.

• Around the most vulnerable windows, consider thorny or prickly plants. If the area is sunny, how about agaves (century plants), barberry, cacti, holly, parsley hawthorn, flowering quince and shrub roses? If the area is shaded, try mahonias.

• Wind chimes create delightful sounds, but might also startle an invader, and alert you, if placed along entry pathways. Motion detectors are available in cute forms that make animal sounds. Others take the form of lights that come on when someone passes by or sprinklers with swivel heads that send out hard squirts of water aimed at the triggering motion.

These aren’t harmful in themselves, but they might disconcert a potential invader enough that he will move on to another house.

• Take a good look at your night outdoor lighting. If none exists, consider installing some. Darkness is probably the single most inviting element to a potential burglar.

Security lighting doesn’t have to be industrial-strength. Remember, spotlights illuminate, but also create dark areas.

• In neighborhoods where chain-link fences connect rows of back yards, intruders have been known to zigzag down the fence lines. Discourage them from invading your space with fence plantings such as rambling roses, bougainvillea or pyracantha.

• The problem with all this, of course, is that you become as susceptible to injury from the plants as the potential invaders. If you do use such plantings beneath windows, be sure your family has — and regularly practices — a fire evacuation plan, selecting a number of different routes. What will you use to protect your exiting family from the thorny branches beneath the windows?

• Use common sense. Don’t leave ladders outside where someone can use them to crawl in an upstairs window. Does your deck hide someone trying to break into a nearby window?

• If your electrical box is well hidden, invaders might cut off the electricity so the whole house becomes dark. If possible, put it in a spot easily visible to neighbors.

• From the fire department comes a plea not to landscape around fire hydrants — especially with thick shrubs. And, for your own protection, make sure your home’s outdoor faucets are easily accessible in case you need to quickly douse flames yourself.

Have you done anything else landscape-wise to add to the security of your home?

7 Responses

One thing that the constable told us about burglars coming in to our back yard, is that our hurricane fences are not as attractive as wooden privacy fences. It’s the only reason we haven’t erected one between us and the stinker next door!

Oops! Glad you caught that. Syntax is a bear sometimes. I’ll tell you, though. If the stinker doesn’t stop coming out in his Speedo to garden, I’m seriously going to think about that privacy fence. YUK. He’s in his 70′s and believe me, he ‘aint no Jack LaLaine.

When our neighborhood break ins started a while back the police said break ins will keep going if you have a dog or even beware of dog sign.
Besides a couch potato doxie security in the inside front window of house we have one screaming Amazon parrot that also helps our security looking out the back windows. Amazon is real good about screaming when the linemen are trimming when I don’t see them first.
The parrot has a beware of attack amazon sign in his window.

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